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We normally write about how California law differs from American law generally. Today, though, we highlight a recent California case that rejected the notion that California law should deviate from analogous federal wage and hour law. That case is Alvarado v. Dart Container Corp. of California. More detailed information appears here.

In Alvarado, the California Court of Appeal ruled that an employer complies with California law when it uses the federal method of calculating the regular rate of pay in determining the overtime premium pay owed on a “flat sum” bonus.

Why are we writing about this? Well, under both California law and federal law, employers must pay overtime premiums based on the regular rate of pay. The regular rate is also important in California because it is the rate at which benefits under the California Paid Sick Leave Act must be paid to non-exempt employees (unless the 90-day lookback method is used). Therefore, knowing how to calculate the regular rate is important to ensure that employers make these payments properly.

Calculating the regular rate includes all items of remuneration paid to non-exempt employees, except for those items that are specifically excludable. The regular rate thus includes almost all payments, including non-discretionary bonuses. Employers, in paying those bonuses, sometimes forget to add overtime premium pay. The employer in Alvarado remembered to make that payment, but used a method of calculating the regular rate that an employee then challenged

The employee was paid a $15 attendance bonus for working weekend shifts. The employer calculated the overtime pay due on this bonus by using the FLSA method of calculating the regular rate of pay. Under the FLSA regulations, an employer may derive the regular rate of pay by simply adding the bonus to the other includable compensation paid and then dividing the sum by the total number of hours worked. The regulations provide an example: an employee works 46 hours in a week, earns $12 an hour, and receives a $46 production bonus for the week. Under the FLSA formula, the regular rate of pay would be $13 an hour [(46 hours x $12/hour) + $46 bonus] / 46 hours].

California statutes do not specifically address how to calculate the regular rate of pay in computing the overtime pay due on a non-discretionary bonus. Thus, like many employers, the employer in Alvarado used a formula that was consistent with the FLSA formula.

The California Department of Labor Standards Enforcement, meanwhile, has taken a different, peculiarly Californian position: the DLSE has opined that the regular rate must be the sum of all compensation divided by only the regular (non-overtime) hours worked. Otherwise, the DLSE has reasoned, the regular rate would be diluted in a way that would conflict with a general California public policy discouraging the use of overtime hours.

The Alvarado court, noting the absence of specific statutory guidance on this subject, rejected the DLSE’s position. The Court of Appeal held that the DLSE’s view was not valid and that employers do not violate California law when following the federal standard.

Now, California employers who pay “flat sum bonuses” in the same pay period that they are earned should be able to rely on the FLSA regulations for calculating overtime payments. It turns out that, in this particular respect, California is not so different after all.

Compare jurisdictions: Employment & Labor: International

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